“One of his sayings was, "Even the gods cannot strive against necessity."”
Diogenes Laërtius (180–240) biographer of ancient Greek philosophers
Pittacus, 4.
The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers (c. 200 A.D.), Book 1: The Seven Sages
As quoted by Plato, Protagoras, 345d, and by Diogenes Laërtius, i. 77.
“One of his sayings was, "Even the gods cannot strive against necessity."”
Diogenes Laërtius (180–240) biographer of ancient Greek philosophers
Pittacus, 4.
The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers (c. 200 A.D.), Book 1: The Seven Sages
“Not even the gods fight against necessity.”
Simonides of Ceos (-556–-468 BC) Ancient Greek musician and poet
Quoted by Plato in the dialogue Protagoras, 345d http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0177%3Atext%3DProt.%3Asection%3D345d (Simonides Fr. 37.1.27 ff.). <br class="br">Variant translations: <br class="br">The gods do not fight against necessity. <br class="br">Not even the gods war against necessity. <br class="br">I praise and love all men who do no sin willingly; but with necessity even the gods do not contend.
“I hold that mortal foolish who strives against the stress of necessity.”
Euripidés (-480–-406 BC) ancient Athenian playwright
Hercules Furens l. 281
Caitlín R. Kiernan (1964) writer
(15 June 2007)
Unfit for Mass Consumption (blog entries), 2007
Context: Art is not science. Even when art is about science, it is still art. There cannot be consensus, in the sense that science strives for meaningful consensus. And unlike science, art is not progressive. Personally, I have my doubts that science can be said to be genuinely progressive, but I'm pretty dammed certain that art is not. Which is not to say that it is not accumulative or accretionary. But the belief that sf writers are out there forecasting the future, that they have some social responsibility to do so, that's malarky, if you ask me. Writers of sf can only, at best, make educated guesses, and usually those guesses are wrong, and clumping together to form a consensus does not in any way insure against history unfolding in one of those other, unpredicted directions. People love to pick out the occasional instances where Jules Verne and William Gibson got it right; they rarely ever point fingers at their miscalls.
“Even the gods cannot change destiny.”
Neil Gaiman (1960) English fantasy writer
Source: Norse Mythology (2017), Chapter 14, “The Death of Balder” (p. 234)
“Even God cannot change the past.”
Agathon (-448–-401 BC) Athenian tragic poet
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, Book VI, sect. 2, 1139b.
Variant translation: Not even the gods can change the past.
“Against boredom even gods struggle in vain.”
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German philosopher, poet, composer, cultural critic, and classical philologist
Gegen die Langeweile kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens.
Sec. 48
The Antichrist (1888)
Source: The Anti-Christ
“The will of man is unconquerable. Even God cannot conquer it.”
Malcolm Lowry book Under the Volcano
Source: Under the Volcano (1947), Ch. III (*p. 97)
“Even if work were not an economic necessity, it is a spiritual necessity.”
Neal A. Maxwell (1926–2004) Mormon leader